19th Century Dessert: Boston Cream Pie!

Step one of the recipe is to get into the 1850s vibe by donning a top hat. The finest top hats of the 19th century were made from beaver fur, renowned for its comfort, durability, and for being waterproof to boot! This fashion trend spread like wildfire and fueled the booming fur trade of the era. While we’ve got some really neat original examples of top hats at the Historical Society, I had none at home. Rather than luxuriant beaver fur, the example you see here is fashioned from the finest posterboard, exquisite duct tape, and a whole lot of sharpie because the poster board started out white.

Rather than an air of dignity, this combination seems to provide the wearer with the look of Dr. Jekyll just at the moment he begins his transformation into Mr. Hyde.

Step 2: Assemble all 8,000 ingredients it takes to make the recipe. What our 1850s ancestors neglected to mention is that, while this seems straightforward enough, it’s actually like 47 recipes rolled into one. There’s cake, there’s icing, there’s filling, there’s chilling, so you go into it thinking “Alright I can make a cake, we’ve got this” but then suddenly you’re elbow deep in custard while simultaneously making sure melting chocolate doesn’t scorch while mixing batter and coming to the realization that you don’t have the right type of flour to begin with. Four hours and 45 minutes of mayhem later, you’ve got yourself a pie.

We weren’t able to find any cake flour, and given the way grocery store supplies have been lately, we were fortunate to find any flour at all! We ended up having to substitute all-purpose flour, and since my cooking usually ends up with enough alterations inadvertently anway, we’ll see what this curveball does for the final product! We may invent some sort of Frankenstein’s monster of cake / pie / bread / flour / pizza, wish us luck!

To really dive into the 1856 style, I made sure to sport the 19th century’s most fashionable facial hair. I joined the ranks of mutton chop aficionados like President Martin Van Buren and General Ambrose E. Burnside. Actually, the latter was the inspiration for the term “burnsides”, which evolved into our modern “sideburns”!

Ye Olde KitchenAid.

Into the cake pan, even though it’s a pie, or is it? This is similar to Thomas Jefferson’s cabbage pudding recipe, which is not really what we’d think of as a pudding nowadays, in that Boston cream pie is not really what anyone would think of as a pie.

Why were our ancestors in the 18th and 19th centuries so eccentric in their naming of culinary masterpieces? We can’t be sure, but there was a whole lot of opium use in those years and that’s as good an explanation as any because that’s about what it would take to look at this and refer to it as a pie.

We added some relevant historical decoration in the background to give our kitchen that genuine 1856 atmosphere, including this stunning portrait. Who do we have here, you ask? Don Johnson? Jim from the Office? Elvis Presley? No, it is of course Franklin Pierce, who has the honor of having been U.S. President in the year Boston cream pie was invented. Here, his official White House portrait by artist G.P.A. Healy has been flawlessly recreated by yours truly in Microsoft Paint. Flawlessly, I say!

To add to the authentic 1850s feel of the Franklin Pierce portrait on the wall, we also included memorabilia from my alma mater, Franklin Pierce University! In this exhibit we once again have the opportunity to view portrait of the 14th President himself, recreated in an astonishingly beautiful fashion in Microsoft Paint, followed by the University’s official seal, an image of Rocky the Raven displaying his Pierce Pride, and best of all, a photograph of my great friends and roommates from our graduation, ten years ago this month!Alison Goudreau, Bryce Mainville, Stephen Schoff, Benjamin Goudreau, Robert Michaelson, Ashley Elizabeth

We didn’t have enough baking chocolate, and with things the way they are at the moment we weren’t about to head to the store, put on masks, wait in line to be let in, make sure we’re going the right direction down each aisle, and socially distance at the register for 8 ounces of baking chocolate, so, in true 2020 fashion, we improvised! This is what we came up with in lieu of fancy baking chocolate and it turned out great!

A precision maneuver.

It’s taken me more than three decades, but after making it in this recipe, I can finally stop periodically asking myself “What on earth IS custard, anyway?” Thank goodness!

First we had to mix and heat up our homemade custard, then we had to chill it before we’d be able to spread it. Make up your mind, custard, hot or cold!

You have to layer the custard just right or else all will be for naught.

One of our pieces fell over. Again, I cannot stress enough the importance of proper custard layering to avoid senseless catastrophes like this.

Proud owners of a pie! Or cake, we’re not sure either.

Drum roll for the first bite – And it’s a thumbs up from Anni Emma Smith! Note her sloth-themed skirt. When it comes to historical recipe recreation, one’s sloth skirt is nearly as important as their top hat!

The expression of pleasant surprise that comes with a recipe I’ve helped with turning out to be edible! Huzzah!

In our recent historical cooking post, we recreated one of Thomas Jefferson’s favorite meals – his very own recipe for cabbage pudding! After enjoying that dinner, we felt it was time for the next course – DESSERT! Today, we’re flying our culinary time machine to 1856 for a treat with special significance to Massachusetts… Here, we shall find one of the most earth-shattering events in the history of this state and indeed the world: The invention of Boston cream pie!

Its creation is credited to a Parker House Hotel chef by the name of M. Sanzian of Armenian-French descent, so while invented in Boston, this recipe draws inspiration from cuisine in Europe, Asia, and North America. The dish is still on the menu there today so you can savor a piece from the very same kitchen where it was first invented 164 years ago! The dish really took off in our region, so much so that Boston cream pie has even been officially designated Massachusetts’ State Dessert!

We once again turned to our trusted friend, Chef Walter Staib in his “A Taste of History Cookbook: The Flavors, Places, and People that Shaped American Cuisine”. The episode featuring this recipe looks like it’s available to watch on the PBS website here: https://www.pbs.org/vid…/bostons-famous-parker-house-vmqzuh/

Or if you’d rather watch us bumble our way through it, you can take a look at the photo gallery to see how this round of historical recipe recreation went for Anni and me and learn more fun facts along the way!

Location

Upcoming Events

Declaring Independence - Then & NowJuly 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm – 7:00 pmUnited Methodist Church, Townsend, MA 01469, USAComeand join the Townsend Historical Society and hear the echoes of the past inthis riveting performance about the Declaration of Independence. Costumedperformers will tell the story behind the struggle to define freedom. Thereading will take place in the same structure where the document was readbefore the congregation, 245 years ago. Declaring Independence is presented inpartnership…